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source_url: https://thedailyrecord.com/2026/08/18/birthright-citizenship-maryland-supreme-court/
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2 Supreme Court decisions later, MD birthright citizenship case will continue
Class-action plaintiffs question Trump's latest executive order on children of noncitizens
Despite the [U.S. Supreme Court](https://thedailyrecord.com/tag/u-s-supreme-court/) [upholding birthright citizenship in June](https://thedailyrecord.com/2026/06/30/supreme-court-rejects-trump-birthright-citizenship/), a [class-action lawsuit](https://thedailyrecord.com/tag/class-action-lawsuit/) in Maryland can proceed and challenge President Donald [Trump](https://thedailyrecord.com/tag/trump/)‘s [latest restrictions on automatic citizenship](https://thedailyrecord.com/2026/08/07/trump-new-orders-restrict-birthright-citizenship-us/), a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
Although the high court’s June decision struck down Trump’s [2025 executive order](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/protecting-the-meaning-and-value-of-american-citizenship/) that sought to end [birthright citizenship](https://thedailyrecord.com/tag/birthright-citizenship/), the plaintiffs in [CASA, Inc. v. Trump](https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69563661/casa-inc-v-trump/) say the president’s new [executive order](https://thedailyrecord.com/tag/executive-order/) “may be interpreted to immediately deny citizenship” to members of the class of U.S.-born children whose parents were in the country either temporarily or illegally.
They cautioned that the federal government could interpret the new order to deny citizenship “without regard” to a [preliminary injunction issued last year](https://thedailyrecord.com/2025/08/08/md-judge-blocks-birthright-order/) in the same case.
“I am not prepared to give you an off-the-cuff assessment of whether my preliminary injunction would apply to a new executive order,” U.S. District Judge [Deborah Boardman](https://thedailyrecord.com/tag/deborah-boardman/) said during a Tuesday phone conference, setting a Sept. 11 deadline f0r a status report addressing the new executive action.
Signed Aug. 6, the [new executive order](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/08/continuing-to-protect-the-meaning-and-value-of-american-citizenship/) attempts to create exceptions for what it calls “children of aliens who do not fall within the rule of birthright citizenship as announced by the Supreme Court.”
It directs federal agencies to deny citizenship to children of noncitizens when either parent is a foreign government official, is “an alien enemy,” is “engaged in a commercial transaction to purchase or access birthright citizenship” or is “engaged in fraudulent activity to obtain citizenship.”
The plaintiffs’ attorneys said in a court filing that the categories are “poorly defined” and raised “numerous questions.” They argued that it’s unclear how exactly “alien enemy” is defined — the order cites certain federal statutes that allow the government to designate people as foreign terrorists, but it doesn’t say whether that’s an exhaustive list of people who would be affected. It also doesn’t say whether it applies to children of lawful permanent residents who are not citizens or if it’s limited to children born after the order was signed.
“Class counsel therefore lack sufficient information about the meaning of the Order to advise class members on how the Order may or may not affect their rights,” wrote attorneys for [Prince George’s County](https://thedailyrecord.com/tag/prince-georges-county/)-based CASA, the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project and the individual class-members. Along with in-house counsel, the plaintiffs are represented by a team of attorneys from Georgetown Law’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection. The lawsuit was filed in [U.S. District Court](https://thedailyrecord.com/tag/u-s-district-court/) for Maryland on Jan. 21, 2025, the day after Trump was sworn in for his second term and signed the first executive order.
Department of Justice attorney Brad Rosenberg said during Tuesday’s conference that executive branch agencies are “in the process of developing their guidance” for the new order, saying that discussion of whether it violates Boardman’s preliminary injunction is premature “until we have something more concrete.”
The order gave agencies 30 days to issue public guidance regarding its implementation. For now, it “operates only prospectively and is not effective until guidance is issued,” Rosenberg said.
Boardman, who was nominated for the bench in 2021 by then-President Joe Biden and sits in Greenbelt, granted the plaintiffs’ motion to lift a stay on the case, ordering Tuesday for the parties to file a status update after the 30-day rulemaking period concludes.
The stay had been in place since October, when the Justice Department appealed a [decision granting a class-wide preliminary injunction](https://thedailyrecord.com/2025/08/08/md-judge-blocks-birthright-order/) against the original executive order. Boardman had initially [granted a nationwide injunction](https://thedailyrecord.com/2025/02/05/trumps-birthright-citizenship-order-put-on-hold-by-second-federal-judge-in-md/) in February 2025, but the Supreme Court [overturned it](https://thedailyrecord.com/2025/06/27/supreme-court-injunction-trump-birthright-citizenship/), finding that such universal orders [exceed the authority](https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a884_8n59.pdf) of federal district court judges.